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Three detainees leave Guantanamo for AfghanistanFourth person return to undisclosed location
From Vivian Paulsen
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Three Afghans -- part of a group of four people who had been held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- have been returned to Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday. The organization said it had observers present when the three arrived Sunday and were handed over to Afghan authorities at the air base in Bagram. At the Pentagon in Washington, spokeswoman Victoria Clark said four detainees had been sent "to their home countries." She would not confirm reports that the fourth person is Pakistani. Clark said commanders had determined that the four "no longer posed a threat to U.S. security." An intelligence source said the three Afghans had been taken to a hospital for checkups. They are scheduled to be handed over Tuesday to the Afghan Interior Ministry and then released to their families. U.S. officials made no comment on the men's identities or why they had been held at the U.S. base in Cuba. In Kabul, Valmay Khalilzab, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, said any Afghan nationals returned from Guantanamo have been found not to be involved with the al Qaeda terrorist network or the Taliban. A senior Pentagon official had said Friday 65 detainees being held in Afghanistan would be flown to Guantanamo Bay early this week. Current construction of new detention facilities has brought the number of cells to more than 800 at Guantanamo. The United States has been holding suspects from the war on terrorism at Guantanamo since January, when the first batch of prisoners held in Afghanistan were transferred by military cargo planes under extremely tight security.
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